4-8 Carter Gate

Three former houses, constructed during the C18, subsequently converted to shop use during the C20.

MATERIALS: there are two glazed shopfronts to the ground floor, one with timber surrounds. The upper storeys of the building are built of red brick laid in a Flemish bond. There are timber-framed single-pane sash windows on first and second floors within timber surrounds. The roof is covered with pantiles.

PLAN: the building forms part of a terrace and has a rectangular plan orientated on a north-east to south-west axis. The ground floor is split into two retail units.

EXTERIOR: the building is set over three storeys which face directly onto Carter Gate. The ground floor contains two shopfronts. The one to the left has a mid-C20 with plate-glass frontage with a terrazzo floor threshold and shares a double frontage with The Arcade. The shopfront to the right dates to the C21 but in a traditional style with a stallriser, timber frame and inset threshold. These are unmatched with an off centre central door. Above ground floor level, the red-brick façade has seven bays with sash windows in the odd-numbered bays at first and second floor levels with blind recesses in alternate bays. The first-floor windows have late-C19 single-pane sash windows with soldier-coursed, extended segmental arches. There are blind windows of the same shape between. Second-storey windows are smaller with two-over-two sashes. Above the dentillated eaves sits a hipped roof covered with clay pantiles. There are three, single-stack chimneys in the first, third and seventh bays. The building immediately backs onto the shop units that run to the north-west, forming one side of ‘The Arcade’.